Ian Keen

After training and working in the visual arts, Ian Keen gained a BSc in anthropology at University College London (1973) and a PhD in anthropology at The Australian National University (1979). He has conducted anthropological fieldwork in northeast Arnhem Land, the Alligator Rivers region, and McLaren Creek in the Northern Territory of Australia, and in Gippsland, Victoria. He is the author of Knowledge and Secrecy in an Aboriginal Religion (Clarendon Press 1994), and Aboriginal Economy and Society (Oxford 2004) as well as many articles in journals and edited books, and he edited Being Black: Aboriginal Cultures in ‘Settled’ Australia and other collections of essays. His research interests have included Yolngu kinship and religion, Aboriginal land rights, Aboriginal economy, and language and culture. His current research includes the diversity and typology of Australian Aboriginal kinship systems as part of the Austkin project, and the language of property. He has lectured and supervised postgraduate students at the University of Queensland and The Australian National University, where he is now a Visiting Fellow.

Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies II »

Historical engagements and current enterprises

Edited by: Natasha Fijn, Ian Keen, Christopher Lloyd, Michael Pickering

Publication date: July 2012

This is the second volume to emerge from a project on Indigenous participation in the Australian economy, funded by an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant, and involving the cooperation of the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at The Australian National University and the National Museum of Australia. The Chief Investigators were Ian Keen, Chris Lloyd, Anthony Redmond, the Partner Investigator was Mike Pickering, Fiona Skyring was an associate researcher on the project, and Natasha Fijn was research assistant. The present volume arises out of a conference in Canberra on Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies at the National Museum of Australia on 9–10 November 2009, which attracted more than thirty presenters. The diverse themes included histories of economic relations, the role of camels and dingoes in Indigenous–settler relations, material culture and the economy, the economies of communities from missions and stations to fringe camps and towns, the transitions from payment-in-kind to wage economies and Community Development Employment Projects, the issue of unpaid and stolen wages, local enterprises, and conflicts over development. Sixteen of those papers have been developed as chapters in this volume, together with a foreword by Professor Jon Altman. This book comprises a companion volume to Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies: Historical and Anthropological Perspectives, published by ANU Press in 2010.

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Indigenous Participation in Australian Economies »

Historical and anthropological perspectives

Edited by: Ian Keen

Publication date: December 2010

This volume seeks to contribute to the body of anthropological and historical studies of Indigenous participation in the Australian colonial and post colonial economy. It arises out of a panel on this topic at the annual conference of the Australian Anthropological Society, held jointly with the British and New Zealand anthropological associations in Auckland in December 2008. The panel was organised in conjunction with an Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Grant project on Indigenous participation in Australian economies involving the National Museum of Australia as the partner organisation and the School of Archaeology and Anthropology at The Australian National University. The chapters of the volume bring new theoretical analyses and empirical data to bear on a continuing discussion about the variety of ways in which Indigenous people in Australia have been engaged in the colonial and post-colonial economy. Contributions cover settler capitalism, concepts of property on the frontier, Torres Strait Islanders in the mainland economy, the pastoral industry in the Kimberley, doggers in the Western Desert, bean and pea picking on the South Coast of New South Wales, attitudes to employment in general in western New South Wales, relations of Aboriginal people to mining in the Pilbara, and relations with the uranium mine and Kakadu National Park in the Top End. The chapters also contribute to discussions about theoretical and analytical frameworks relevant to these kinds of contexts and bring critical perspectives to bear on current issues of development.

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